Mackenthun’s welcomes crew for HurryCane infomercial

Published July 3, 2013 at 1:51 pm

Shoppers may or may not have noticed but Mackenthun’s Fine Foods in Waconia turned into a television set for a few hours last week. A team from martFIVE, a marketing company based in Plymouth, was at the store to film an infomercial for one of its products, the HurryCane, during the morning of Thursday, June 27.
The Hurry Cane is an expandable cane that features a unique three-point base. Since its release about a year and a half ago, the HurryCane has sold close to 1 million units. The infomercial was being filmed for the newest version of the HurryCane, which will be 25 percent lighter and 40 percent stronger.
For the shoot, a crew of about a dozen people filmed an elderly actress with a HurryCane walking up the aisles, reaching for products and walking outside of the store. The scenes shot at Mackenthun’s were only the second day of about 10 to 15 days of shooting for the infomercial, which will be 30 minutes long and shown on national television starting in October. Mackenthun’s is one of three locations for the infomercial.
martFIVE’s John Priess is the director of the infomercial. As a citizen of Waconia, Priess suggested Mackenthun’s as he knew interior and exterior shots at a grocery store were needed for the infomercial.
“I knew this place would be perfect,” Priess said. “I live out here, I shop out here and I knew we had this scene in the grocery store to film. It’s nice to have a place locally like this to open up its doors to us.”
Kim Mackenthun, owner of Mackenthun’s Fine Foods, said his store has been used for training films and videos by companies such as Supervalu and Procter & Gamble in the past but this will be the first time the store will be seen on national television. Mackenthun, who explained that filming was done in the morning so any disruption to customers was kept to a minimum, said it was fun to have the crew film at the store.
To learn more about the HurryCane, visit www.martfive.com.